December Moon
by Ms.Dawes
Summary: Human AU. Caroline and Stefan lead an uneventful married life in London, until Stefan just goes missing one day and Caroline starts to suspect his long time friend Nicklaus has something to do with it. What emerges, changes her life and puts her on a collision course with her husbands double life. R&R please.
1. Chapter 1

**December Moon**

**Summary: **AU universe Caroline and Stefan lead an uneventful, if boring, married life, until Stefan goes missing and she starts to suspect Nicklaus has something to do with it. What other terrible secrets will she learn along the way?

**Disclaimer: **none of vampire diaries characters are mine.

**Chapter 1**

They were having the same conversation again. And the tempo was raising an octave with every sentence that passed between them. Caroline didn't care anymore. She was done trying to be understanding, indulgent, and patient. This was the twelfth time she was begging her husband Stefan for a legitimate reason why they could not try for a child with modern medical help.

They had been trying for two years now and things were not moving. The local hospital had offered to do some helpful fertility tests on both her and Stefan to get to the bottom of things. For some reason her husband saw this as the most absurd thing she's suggested yet.

'We haven't been trying long enough Caroline...' he whispered noisily hammering the table with a balled fist. People in the cafe turned around to look at them with faint interest, appetisers forgotten. Caroline just pretended to nibble on a carrot for a few minutes before she felt everyone's interest in them wane. 'There just tests Stefan, I don't understand why you don't want to even try...you are such a baby I swear!'

That got him pissed to hell.

'What I don't understand is why you blame me for everything you can't handle, we have been through this Caroline, we agreed to try for another year and see what happens...you know my freakin job is stressful right now and i don't have time for your stupid personal drama!'

There was a 'crash' as his empty glass fell to the floor and shattered like a dry and empty testament to their animosity.

She didn't even bother to spit an insult out, just grabbed her purse from under the table and slipped out of the booth wordlessly. Her husband did not follow; he knew it was a bad time to try.

Bristol was frigid this time of the year. Icy droplets of rain fell on her forehead and slipped down her cheeks like tears. She wiped at them quickly, self-conscious of strangers looking at her questioningly. Caroline wanted to enjoy her holiday, even if it was a short one, the last of the whole year she would get to have with Stefan. But she couldn't because of his disinterest in the fertility treatment.

She had told herself she not rush him or prod him unnecessarily when he was on edge about something, but ultimately impatience had won out and her push had turned to shove.

She didn't imagine he was embarrassed by it, he wasn't a proud man her husband. They had been married for two years and she knew him well enough to know something was bothering him. Something serious enough that made him grumpy and unyielding to be around. She also knew prying it out of him would only push the problem back in further instead out in the open but she couldn't help poking at the bee hive.

Her mother had always warned her about Stefan and the volatility of his nature. A resolute spinster whose advice she had ignored with a flourish on her wedding day, washing down the woman's gathered pearls of wisdom with a large swig of champagne and saccharine sweet kisses.

'_I hope my I told you so, doesn't come to bite you in the ass Caroline...' _

Her mother, the killer of all thoughts related to romance. Oh well.

This baby thing was making her crazy. Everyone she knew was reproducing faster than you could say Easter bunny and Caroline was the only one in the gaggle of her friends lacking a pram and a baby bag. Even her friend high school friend Rita, who had vowed never to have children was due any minute this month.

Which reminded her she missed Rita and her home town. She and Stefan had made a mad dash out of the states as soon as Stefan's firm had offered him a promotion abroad. Castleton had been too small for both of them and their ambitions. Well, Stefan's anyway because Caroline had found London to be almost completely different planet from her small town life.

They lived in the city, in an expensive two bedroom with wall to wall windows. It all seemed the very epitome of glamour in the beginning until the rainy days dulled to weeks, and weeks sunk into months, with her husband hardly coherent after his intense working hours and her lonely treks to bars upon bars trying to dissolve the feeling of utter loneliness from her mind. Intimacy and romance had become an afterthought, often only occurring on her irked insistence.

Oh he cared, he felt guilty and talked constantly about moving back near friends and family. But in the end she felt Stefan had outgrown the simple life. It was almost as if he had been born to rule the corporate world, and by world she meant the 'world' because when he wasn't working late at the office, he was travelling Europe for other business prepositions. She would often join him on his trips enthusiastically because he asked for her company but only to be left despondent, ordering room service alone in their luxury hotel rooms, wishing he could give a damn about her general existence.

It wasn't a completely loveless affair; they had romantic dinners every Valentine's Day, her birthday (because he always worked on his birthday) and wedding anniversaries. He bought her lingerie and jewellery habitually every few months as if on auto pilot with the exception of flowers. He rarely ever got her flowers anymore and somehow that bothered her more than she could admit to herself. She could complain and they could start arriving every few months like the other things her husband has set on auto reminder.

But she doesn't because for once she would like for him to dig deep for that kind of initiative. Like the fertility tests she wanted to have done so badly. She knew it was silly to think of them as some kind of reminder of the fact that she was still young and vibrant with life, that they defined her failure as a woman or uncovered some hideous flaw that made her as equally morose and subservient to her unchanging lifestyle, but it was what it was.

As if reading her mind the rain intensified, she could almost imagine a violin screeching in anguish on her behalf somewhere. The curls she had spent an hour on perfecting had become a tangled mess sure to give her a hell of trouble brushing. Her husband tapped her on the shoulder just as she is about to slip on the icy street outside the cafe, his blue eyes beaming with live amusement at her state.

'Not that I don't find all this feisty behaviour a turn on, but I really hope you're not planning to be this moody all week...because it's going to a long week.'

She avoided looking at him, anger still covering her features, her coat hung snugly in his arm. She had an urge to wrap herself in its warmth. 'Bite me Stefan...' came out her embittered reply. It might have been loaded with a bit too much drama even for her, but that was all she could come within the confines of the biting cold weather.

'Oh come on Caroline, can we not do this now, we're on holiday... this was your idea remember?' he was already bored; she had become a predictable blonde bitch of a wife he had to drag around sullenly. Breath of practiced patience replaced the wave of discontentment, and she took her husband's proffered arm to get under an umbrella.

She thought of the several miscalls from her mother and decided to leave them unanswered for a little while longer.

It was date night and Stefan had come home after nine, in tow with his friend Nicklaus. Nicklaus who Stefan affectionately referred to as Nick and she disdainfully referred to as Klaus. There was a story behind the intermittent divide of the name and what the two halves represented, but she hadn't always paid enough attention to his stories because his lilting accent and perpetual grin always irked her.

Caroline took a large sip of the red wine Klaus White Mikaelson had brought them; she tried to keep up with the conversation which had moved from work to more work. None of their pretentious blathering about crashing stock markets and inflating prices made sense to her. She tuned out most of it thinking about the simple lasagne she had made not anticipating Klaus's visit, how it needed more cheese and whether either of the men noticed.

Like most of Klaus's visits this one was sudden and uninformed.

He was an investment banker who made friends with Stefan at a fund raiser party, enthralling him with his vast legions of one night stands and short term girlfriends.

Caroline came home from an icy trek to the shops to them chatting about his new girlfriend, back up dancer Sierra or something. Last time it was school teacher Trudy.

She wondered what happened to all these 'girlfriends'? Did they find him un-engaging outside the ultra-showman exterior, or was he too busy to notice if they up and left without a goodbye note?

Many times she thought of asking these questions and suffered bouts of shyness in his presence because he was charming with a side of shady, smarmy in his self-indulgent image of grandeur and flamboyance. It was hard to find the right line to communicate with someone like him, unless she talked stock markets and hot singletons they would be on very different wave lengths from each other.

'You know Stefan, if you're interested in investing now, the interest rates are going down ...i can get you a good deal' he asked wiping at his mouth. Her husband grasped his wine glass with eagerness of a school boy being told he can have all the candy he wanted for free, nodded happily at the notion.

Which was about when Caroline let out a Derisive snort; both men turned to look at her expressions blanking. They were waiting for her to elaborate on her intrusion she did, in a rather childish way, 'You know you guys have got so much in common you should have gotten married.' It sounded moronic even to her own ears, but as the drink had muddled her introvert skills tonight, she couldn't stop the words from escaping her mouth. Stefan watched her with the sort of disgust a man would who was ashamed of his wife of years and years. His friend, Klaus's smile was something else all together. It was surprisingly soft.

It was slightly unnerving; she locked her eyes with him momentarily, only until Stefan broke the uncomfortable silence by getting up and picking up the bottle of wine from the table with purpose.

'I think that's more than enough wine for you...' the tone tired and disappointed, she only managed a purse of her lips and got up to retrieve the bottle from him. She was fully capable of holding her drink; she would not become one of those alcoholic wives that needed early banishment to their bedrooms because of their scandalous behaviour.

Later, when it was dark in their home and Klaus had left, her husband started changing out of his clothes without looking at her directly. Stefan was rarely ever angry with her, it was almost always her that got angry and gave any silent treatment.

It felt a bit odd to be at the receiving end of it tonight. Maybe he thought she had fallen asleep because of the wine. She was relatively awake and aware of a stroppy husband with his back to her as if he were deliberating on what to say to her. Caroline suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to burst into tears, maybe it was in her head, but she felt like she was being treated like an invalid.

When he still didn't speak she took to a lighter note with him, unsure what to treat his silence as a sign of, 'He's got a new girlfriend you know?'

He turned, if only a little to look back at her with a slight smile on his lips, 'Nick? Yeah, he's a regular Rob Roy character.' There was a clear sign of admiration in his voice, she took this as an encouragement to continue, 'He gets around a lot, doesn't he? if he were a woman you'd call him a slut'

Stefan sat down at the edge of the bed, still with his back to her and she found her throat tightening at his indifference to her obvious desperation. She was trying to communicate with him in her own way, trying to find out what was so wrong he couldn't share with her. And she was talking about Klaus's sluttiness, maybe she was drunk because she expected him to respond meaningfully to her ridiculous ramblings about his friend.

'Actually sweetheart, you would call a woman like that a slut, I completely respect two consenting adults having intercourse if they feel the need, I mean, come on, i remember you being really horny before we got engaged. What about Tyler, Ben, Jeremy… ' He turned now, feigning counting her past boyfriends before him on his fingers; a devilish smile on his face, whatever trace of unhappiness seemed to leave his face. Caroline threw a heavy feather pillow at him and missed, 'You're rude.'

This he seemed to agree with because he sighed dramatically lying down next to her, 'I know, that's why you married me.'

She felt him switch off the side lamps and turned on her side facing him, 'I don't think I've ever seen you annoyed with me before, I... just miss you.'

For a few minutes he didn't say anything and she thought he might of have gone to sleep, but then she felt his fingers trace the outline of her face tenderly, 'Klaus's my oldest friend, and you embarrassed me in front of him today.'

She felt a stab of jealousy at his mention of Klaus, 'I did no such thing, and you have other friends.' Mistake, she felt his fingers leave her, he drew himself back into his shell and turned away from her.

'No Caroline, not really, I don't.'

She turned away from him and didn't realize there were tears on her cheeks until she wiped at them.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Caroline struggled with her enormous purse on the tube; she was really starting to feel self-conscious about. It wasn't a fashion statement, but more of a means of carrying heaving her textbooks to her business class. The community college was far trek from the City of London, but it felt good to crunch through some icy slush in her wellies, and buy a caramel latte from the underground station before she got on the tube home.

She found herself drifting in class lately; her thoughts were a grey monotone even with the cheery caramel latte. While they talked about linear graphs and business plans, Caroline found herself thinking about her husband's relationship with Klaus. Maybe her feeling blue had something to do with her starting on her period after being overdue for eight whole days. She thought they had finally done it. Made a baby, but turns out it were just her overtly expectant hormones making her late again.

Her teacher, Alan, was a man with greying hair and thick glasses; he seemed to notice her disinterest in class and chose to ignore her for the time being. It felt as though the whole world knew of her inability to conceive and her deteriorating marriage.

Their building was relatively empty during the day, so when Caroline pressed a button for the lift she was surprised how long it took to come down. When it finally did come, someone... the mail man rushed out in a flash of orange, and bumped into her with a start. Their eyes met only for a brief second, but it was pretty clear there was no apology in them and he carried on without looking back at her.

'Hey you!...it's called S-O-R-R-Y!?' she called after him, he didn't turn and just hurried out the lobby.

Caroline felt her teeth grinding together in annoyance; the latte had spilled all over the lift area and her clothes. Her white fleece coat looked like a canvas with abstract light brown splotches. She wiped her phone off on her already ruined coat and wrung her hands after letting the remaining latte land in a small dustbin near the lift.

She was still venting curses under her breath when the lift opened up to their apartment door. She didn't get out of the lift, but punched the hold button in the lift, because their front door lay wide open.

* * *

><p>Caroline sat in the in the middle of their sitting room, surrounded by mounds of strewn paper and overturned furniture. She didn't know they owned this much paper though, because their house seemed littered with torn bit and pieces of paper, magazines and newspapers. Their clothes had been pulled out their wardrobe and had been thrown around their bedroom. Everything had been turned upside down.<p>

She still couldn't get Stefan on the phone. Officer Brian, was sitting with her at the table coaxing her to drink some tea one of the female officers made to 'put her at ease'. Even though they were sitting here with her, she felt an undeniable feeling of danger enveloping her. Someone had done this, come into their home and overturned it, took nothing...or at least nothing Caroline was aware of, she had an painstaking urge to burst into tears, but she couldn't until she knew what was going on. That and she was unable to get in touch with her husband, seven miscalls and four messages later he still hadn't called or texted her back.

The officer cleared his throat mildly to get her straying attention, 'Do you know anyone who would do this? As a joke maybe...'

She gave him a blank stare, he had been nothing but comforting and helpful, but she felt slightly numb with the strangeness of it all. Whoever ransacked their home, hadn't taken anything. There was an uncomfortable feeling at the pit of her stomach and she wasn't sure how to ease the tightening knot.

'I don't think we know anyone well enough in London, for these kinds of jokes...' Officer Brian gave an understanding nod and wrote on his notepad, he was sitting, perched on their table while two other black uniformed officers calmly riffled through the mess everywhere. It made her shudder to think of the stranger who has been similarly going through their things and invading their privacy.

'So, would you like to talk to me about the mail man again?'

Caroline's first thought when she stepped through her front door had been about the man dressed as the mail man who almost knocked her over getting out of the lift. It might of have been nothing, but something about the steeliness of his grey eyes as he challenged her screamed danger. She pressed on the call button on her phone for Stefan's number again, aware of Officer Brain's patient stare, after two rings she pressed 'end' and looked back at him unapologetic, 'There was just something off about him, i don't know how to explain it, he was running to get away from something.'

It sounded much more believable in her head.

'Alright, but you say he didn't speak to you? How do you know he could be the one to do this?' There was a practiced look of understanding in his face, this probably seemed like a lead that was not going to pan out, and Caroline could feel herself wilting at the suggestion that she was grasping at straws. Maybe Brian was skeptical because she had shown a bit too much of aggravation at the mail man for ruining her favorite coat.

Great, now she was a vain, rich, bitch.

'I don't know, look why don't you guys try to find out from the mail center here if they sent anyone with a package? They could tell you whether he was supposed to be here or not.'

That seemed to ruffle the officer's feathers, he got off the table and gave her a small, tight smile showing a minor crack in his professionalism, 'Yes, i know Mrs. Salvatore we're just doing our job, making sure you tell us everything you know so we can help you find out who did this.', he paused sympathetically when he saw her taken aback, 'I already asked one of our officers to check out the mail delivery schedule and the person on duty for this block today, they'll let us know something as soon as they find out.'

She nodded, feeling bad about showing attitude to the man; he was well into his forties and knew what he was doing. She was just having a bad day and taking it out on others. Maybe the mail guy was just delivering mail and hurrying to his next stop, maybe she really was making too much of his rough bump against her in the lobby because he had just been plain rude and as far as she knew that wasn't an arrest-able crime in any country yet.

Caroline was about to apologize to Officer Brian when something seemed to distract his attention, she turned and followed his eyes to the front door still wide open, one of the younger officers stood questioning a tall visitor in the doorway. Brian came to stand next to her, 'Is that your husband Mrs. Salvatore?'

The man in the doorway looked quietly at her while the younger officer at the door took down his details. She managed a shake of her shoulders at no one in particular, 'No, that's his friend Klaus.'

Caroline felt tense suddenly, why couldn't she get a hold of Stefan and why was Klaus here? He looked odd in his 6'2, well dressed frame, cautiously walking around in her home. Klaus stepped around the debris on the sitting and introduced himself to Brian. She stayed silent until the officer explained everything to him in low tones.

And then they were alone, she was about to try calling Stefan again when her eyes fell on something small and dark Klaus was holding.

'Are you okay Caroline?'

She felt a pang of fear, 'Is that Stefan's?...' There was a worrying pause, he saw her apprehension and smiled a broad reassuring smile, 'Yes, he left it at work and went off to his meeting in Swansea, I don't think he realized he left his phone at his table.' He put the phone down on the table next to her. 'I just saw the seventeen miscalls from you and just wanted to make sure you're alright...' Caroline watched him take a few steps further and take in the sight of overturned lamps and broken overhead lights bulbs with interest, 'What happened here.'

She ignored the question, 'When is Stefan going to be back?'

Wide blue eyes returned to her face momentarily amused at her indifference, 'I don't know, I'm not exactly his secretary; he didn't tell you where he was going?'

Caroline let her glare settle on his broad shoulders, she didn't like him coming in like this and roaming around with purpose like he was looking for something. It was all really weird. Why had Stefan left his phone, he's never done that before...that she knew of.

This was the first time in the last few months he had messaged her from work. And now he's gone off to some meeting in another city without telling her.

'Someone was in our house...he didn't take any valuables.' She supplied briefly, in a more subdued tone, she didn't want to seem like she was out of the loop on everything, Klaus very presence made her feel incompetent in her own home and he wasn't doing much to hide his distaste of her problem handling skills.

He crunched through some broken light bulbs back to her while Officer Brian talked on his phone, 'Nothing missing? What were they looking for?' she shrugged, 'How should i know?, I just came home and found it like this.' She didn't mention the mail man. No reason for more looks of general disbelief at her expense.

He gave an authoritarian nod to the whole ensemble, as if he approved of how things were being handled by the police, they remained remarkably unaffected by his presence as if it were completely normal for him to be around, 'Well, I'll tell Stefan to get in touch with you if he gives me a call, for now I think you should try and go over to a friends to spend the day...' Caroline tried to smile a tight smile like Officer Brian earlier, but she ended up giving him a grimace. Damn, it was much harder than it looked. 'I'm going to wait for Stefan to come home, but thanks for the phone Klaus, I'll keep you posted.'

She left him standing in the middle of the room with Officer Brian and went to her bedroom because if she stood around him any longer she might start screaming.

* * *

><p>Something was wrong, very wrong. It was the damn mute button. For years Caroline was used to sleeping with the tv on. Her mother was a nurse and worked the graveyard shift for years through her high school. Caroline could never go to sleep in silence, it made her jumpy, so she would leave the tv on a low decipherable volume and drift off to sleep.<p>

After the day's odd events and still no word from Stefan or Klaus about his whereabouts, Caroline sat down on the sofa, keeping all points of contact nearby; her iphone, the Lan line, the tv remote. She had managed to clear up all the mess after hours of brushing, vacuuming and filling endless trash bags later she had sat down on the sofa with the intention of begrudgingly calling Klaus, but had drifted off to sleep with her legs on the floor.

It wasn't the noise, but rather lack of noise which alerted her to the intruder in the apartment. Someone had pressed the mute button on the TV, because it was still running, but it was completely silent. Oh, she had tried not to immediately give into the panic and pass it off as something she had done before falling asleep, but she was pretty sure she would have remembered.

Something in her heart leapt at the idea that it might be Stefan. Except, Stefan would have no reason to turn the TV down and slink about the apartment like he didn't belong there, Caroline cracked open half an eye and found herself in complete darkness. The neon glow of the wall clock told her it was midnight. She had slept for six hours. In blind panic she tried to reach for the phone and came up empty.

Both phones were gone, along with the remote. A deep chill settled within her chest and held her still. There was a faint rustle of clothes, like jeans, she could hear from her blind vantage point. She considered her options, should she try to make it to the front door and run? Or should she try to get to the Lan line in her bedroom? The faint rustling she had heard a little earlier had quietened completely, maybe it was the loud thundering of her heart that was distracting her, but she needed to pull herself together. Whoever it was, was waiting for her to realize that they were here. She could have element of surprise if she could get the sharpest knife in her kitchen and try to attack first.

Unfortunately, any choices she wanted to make would have to wait because just as she willed herself to get up from the warm comfort of her sofa, cold metal touched the side of her throat and she neglected to swallow the fear.

'Hello love, come with me...'


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

When the lights came on, at first, she was a bit hysterical because she felt strong hands envelope her wrists. She wanted to let the knife go, but the blade seemed to have warmed with her hold and she was suddenly feeling cold all over and didn't want to release the warmth of the bloody knife.

Klaus kept coaxing her to hand him the knife, his voice sounded like a deep monotone coming from far away.

Why was he here?

'Caroline, it's me. It's alright now, just give me the knife.'

You're safe, he kept repeating to her, but she didn't feel safe, she still felt the cold iron grip of the man who lay below, bleeding his life out on her plush carpet. A man she had stabbed. Oh god. The past few hours ran at fast forward speed in her mind and she dropped the knife like it was a hot potato and ran to the bathroom to throw up.

Pain seemed to seize her body the minute she threw up the day's contents into the toilet, all the cuts and bruises on her body came to life with a simultaneous dull throbbing. She deliberated whether she should stay in the bathroom; it was spotless compared to all the red carnage that lay in the other room.

She could hear some murmuring from the other room, Klaus was talking to someone. Caroline opened the door a crack; he was standing with his back to her in a dark fleece and jeans, looking every bit an odd night visitor. There was a slight ringing in her ears, from adrenaline still coursing through her system, she couldn't hear a word he was saying over the phone, but she assumed he was talking to the police.

Caroline decided to come out of the bathroom now and stood a few steps away from him and the body, shuddering silently, she tried to gather her thoughts as Klaus slipped his phone into one of his pockets and turned to her with concern written all over his face.

'Are you hurt Caroline? ...You look hurt...' He came towards her, but she back tracked from his touch, feeling like an alien in her own body. 'Are the police coming?'

Klaus looked uncomfortable with large hands by his sides. His eyes darted everywhere but look right at her.

'Klaus?...Can you call Stefan? I don't know where my phone is, i think-'

She quietened, not ready to talk about her short ordeal, the premeditation of the dead man's plans brought an unwarranted chill up her spine, which was not going to leave her for a long time. Klaus didn't prod her, but began moving around her, opening and closing kitchen cabinets. Only the soft thuds of the cabinets made her aware of him being in the kitchen, the rest of her remained rooted to the spot where the spiralling trail of blood almost met her feet, with the dead man lying face down with a large kitchen knife sticking out of his back. Caroline felt like she was going to be sick again, she needed to sit down.

Klaus reappeared as if he read her mind and pulled up a seat from the dining table for her, patting it gently. She sat down feeling the gravity of her situation, she had killed someone, someone who had assaulted her and kept asking her about Stefan whereabouts. He hadn't gotten far enough before she managed to stick him with the knife. It was like a bad dream gone wild.

Now the man was dead, and Klaus was pushing a glass of water at her to drink. There were still no sirens that her ears picked up on. They had been fairly quick the last time she had called, unless Klaus hadn't called them yet. She looked at him, decidedly comfortable again; he sat at the other end of the table watching her with a placid expression on his face, revealing nothing of his thoughts. The first thing that struck her was that he hadn't looked terribly shocked. Caroline felt a swell of fear travel up her nerves again. The numbness from shock was gradually vanishing and replacing itself with panic.

'You should drink the water, it'll help...' There wasn't a trace of discomfort in his features, his intense calm brought about an agitation in her system, but it was buried deep. Over all, she felt as composed as he looked at a murder scene.

She reached for the glass and winced feeling the various sores on her body wake up. 'I think I need something a hell of a lot stronger than just water right now.'

His smile was small, just a slight lift at the corner of his lips as he got up again, taking her glass with him. He disappeared in their kitchen again and reappeared with a half empty bottle of vodka and her glass, which was half filled now.

Caroline took the glass and slowly downed half the liquid in one go with Klaus watching her from the doorway.

'So, what happened?...who is this man, Caroline.' There was an accusation in his tone, she didn't appreciate. She downed rest of the vodka and licked her split bottom lip to stop it stinging from the vodka.

'I don't know Klaus, all i know is that Stefan better get himself over here in the next hour or so help me, I'm going to lose my mind.' After a beat and no response from him she added, 'And where are the damn police?'

Klaus detracted from his languid posture in the doorway and came beside her, he poured another half glass of vodka and this time downed it himself with her watching him.

'The police...aren't coming Caroline, I didn't call them.' One of his warm hands descended on her shoulder unobtrusively and held it there. He was studying her injuries; Bruised knuckles, small knife cuts some on her palms and arms, there was a dark red crease on her forehead from where she had tried to lock herself in the bedroom and the man had kicked the door open. Before Klaus's hands could reach her forehead, she slipped out of reach from him.

Something was very wrong here, why was he being so cryptic and where was Stefan?

'Caroline, please calm down, there is nothing to worry about...i'm just trying to help you.'

Her eyes darted around for a weapon of any kind she could use, even though adrenaline had been on high in her system, her movements felt sluggish and her body wasn't responding well to her need to be physically imposing. Laughable, but she just killed some psycho mail man in her home who bumped into her earlier in the morning. She was feeling pretty damn strong about now.

'Why do i need to calm down? What is going on Klaus? I - '

She struggled to fire him the residual amount of questions that had started to swirl in her mind, all of this was in correspondence with her growing alarm. And somehow the growing alarm had shrunk to blissful numbness and all she remembered was seeing Klaus from a funny angle, on the floor. Caroline blinked a few times, her head was filling up with white fog and she found herself drifting as if she were drugged.

Oh, she was drugged...by Klaus. She let out a profanity cursing him before passing out to the image of Klaus leaning over her in mock concern.

'Sweet dreams...'

* * *

><p>A voice Caroline did not recognise was speaking quietly while she was in that delirium between being awake, asleep, or drugged. 'I gave her a tetanus shot for the cuts, but most of the injuries are minor.'<p>

'Thanks' again... I'll take care of her from here.' She shifted on her side, tense with memory of the night; in contrast her body was lying in warm comfort. Her coordination was off, when she shifted the sheets made a loud rustling noise. Hearing a door close in the distance Caroline opened her eyes to white cotton sheets a fluffy pillow.

'You can wake up now Caroline. I know you're up...'

Strangely, before turning over and facing Klaus she wondered about the last time she talked to her mother. And about Stefan's last message to her before all hell broke loose. She tried to sit up with blank determination because she had no idea where this was going and why had he kidnapped her from home.

Her body hurt like it had been in a bad fall and she found that apart from a white button up shirt and the sheets covering her legs, she wasn't wearing much of anything. She was about to let loose a profanity when he held up his hands in surrender. 'Don't be upset, i know what this looks like, but I assure you, your modesty hasn't been affected in any negative way.' Tears of frustration filled her eyes, she didn't let them drop, but relief must still be adherent in her face because he continued, 'The doctor looked you over, gave you a few stitches and a painkiller for the bruised ribs, you need to relax or you're wounds are going to open up again and Stefan is probably going to kill me for not making sure you're alright.'

The inventory of her wounds sounded believable enough, she let a nod punctuate her gratitude. When she spoke her voice was a little over a croak, 'Where's Stefan?' She hadn't realised how dry her throat was, nor did she notice the tall glass of water next to the bed.

Klaus seemed to read her mind again, 'I haven't drugged that love, It's alright to drink...' She glared at him, feeling her face grow hot with emotion and worry. If he didn't give her answers she might start pulling out her hair.

'The man who died in your apartment, have you ever seen him before?' His question brought about an unwelcome bout of terror. The man in her apartment, the mail man, who leapt at her in the darkness of her home and tackled her to the floor, he was dead because of her. Klaus had a stack of pictures on a nearby oval, glass table. He picked them up with care and put three of the pictures, facing up on the covers for her. 'Can you tell me which one of them you've seen before?'

The men in the pictures were remarkably alike, they could have been brothers, all three of them had the same premature white hair and sharp features, but only one had the steel grey eyes which she had encountered in her building lobby yesterday afternoon. Klaus was waiting for her answer.

Caroline could feel her resolve breaking and the tears started to fall, she didn't understand what was going on, 'Klaus, please- just tell me what happened to Stefan. Where is he?! Why are you doing this?!' When he didn't immediately answer, she prodded again, this time fearfully, 'Did something happen to him?'

Klaus looked up from the patterns he was absently tracing on the arms of the chair he sat on facing her, looking every bit in command of the situation, whatever it may be. 'Did something happen to him? ...Yes and No'

Klaus was more than trying her patience; she was past the point of civility, or grace. She wanted...no, needed the answers right now!

'What does that mean?, what do you mean? Stop talking in circles! And tell me the truth.'

His hands stopped moving in the nervous gesture of pattern tracing, he looked only faintly perturbed by her demands and tilted his head to a side, as though he were studying her breakdown. 'Do you know how Stefan and I met Caroline?' It didn't seem like her queue to talk, so she waited, 'We became friends when Stefan came here for an internship. He was always an ambitious chap, bored to death of bloody financial auditing and wanted to find something more...let's say exciting.'

'Wait… was before I met him?' She interrupted because she always heard Klaus was his oldest friend, but she had never been interested in knowing how. 'Yes, this was a while before you both met...when we met, I was working for the MI5. I'm not sure if you know about the organization, but you must have heard something vaguely describing the covert nature of our operations.'

Her eyes narrowed at the intermediate suggestion, 'You were a spy?', now he smiled at her with a full set of white teeth which was an attractive quality of you were trying to woo someone, her suggestion seemed to have ignited a spark in his blue eyes. 'Well, speaking technically yes, but I don't do the spying, I just oversee operations of those nature.'

Something shifted uncomfortably in her heart. She had a bad feeling as to where this was going. '...did Stefan do the spying?'

The light seemed to go out of his eyes at some agonizing detail only he knew about, 'In a manner of speaking, yes, I recruited him, trained him and offered him a job.' Caroline felt a jab of phantom pain somewhere. Everything in her wanted to shutdown and will Klaus to take back all his words because the enormity was too hard to whitewash over.

'There's something else I want to confess Caroline...I actually asked Stefan to leave you, before you got married.'

She snapped out of her horrified reverie and tried to detangle herself from the voluminous sheets her bare legs were trapped under. 'You what?...'

He punctuated the need for her patience with a hand raised for silence, 'Stefan had a hard time choosing between you and the job, he loved you, but he also loved the idea of the job...jetting around the world, catching the bad guys, living the 007 life does take a certain flair he always seemed to have…' Caroline had heard enough, she wanted to leave, she did not want to hear of any 007 style missions her husband and his friend were buddies on, or how it fulfilled Stefan's life more than him life with her. 'Stop it…just tell me where you brought me?!'

He stood up when he realised she was trying to get up. Before she could make a beeline for the front door, which was in plain view of her, Klaus's towering frame blocked her. She took a step back deliberating whether to kick him in the shins or another sensitive area and make a run for it because the atmosphere suddenly didn't seem casual or friendly as he had been trying to make it. 'Caroline, you don't have to be afraid of me, I'm not the bad guy here...even though, our line of work doesn't always earn us a hero's title, I'm most certainly the best friend you can hope to ever have in this situation.' When he saw she wasn't convinced, he went to the table and picked up a hotel room key card and offered it to her. 'You're in holiday inn, room 243, I brought you here so that you can be safe, You can check out, and leave anytime…but I wish you would stay and consider letting me help you.'

She didn't accept the card, it all felt too wrong and far away from the truth she knew. 'Bullshit, why didn't you take me to the hospital? Or better yet if you're so concerned with my safety where the hell is Stefan himself?'

His arms were out, around her, blocking her motion to leave, even though he said she was free to go, it seemed he didn't want to let her go yet, 'Caroline, listen to me, I'm not your enemy. Just grant me 10 minutes to explain the situation and what happened to Stefan. I promise you that you can walk away and never have to talk to me again if it's what you really want.'

If he hadn't been encroaching upon her personal space she might have left, but she stayed despite her better judgement because he was the only one who could tell her where Stefan was.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

So, it turns out Caroline had nothing to say after an hour long commentary over Stefan's double life because she was quiet after Klaus left. She had been sitting comatose for the last thirty minutes in a single white dress shirt that come up to her knees. Somehow, it made sense.

Fitting even, he's always had the visceral hero complex in him. The only problem she had was with her own cluelessness about his latest pensive phase. Lately, he had been irritable and touchy. Caroline almost screwed up her courage to talk about divorce a few times, but they had never gotten to talk because he never had the time.

She hadn't noticed, not once, that something about his work was ...off, It wasn't the constant travelling to Europe, but more and more his being resentful around her, the impatience and the restlessness. The idea that she might have been too self-involved to notice, hurt a bit too much to think about right now.

No wonder he didn't want to have children, or spend time together as a couple because he wanted to play 007. The hysterical burst of laughter was inappropriate in the situation, but she couldn't help it. She always knew there was more to Stefan's friendship with Klaus, but never in a million years had she imagined he was working for some government agency.

The inappropriate laughter made her ribs hurt and reminded her of how she came to get it. She saw a flash of herself on the floor in their home being kicked by the mail man, who wasn't meant to me a mail man. He was looking for her husband and planned to torture the information out of her. And then she promptly burst into tears. Even the psycho mail man had thought she knew about Stefan's double life. Who else would he share with if not his own wife?

The tears just kept coming faster than she could stop them.

* * *

><p>This was the fourth call she had made from her hotel room, which she was meant to check out of. The first, she had made to her mother and left a lengthy message about how she admired her free spirit and how she was right about marriage being a terrible idea.<p>

This was a development that was brought about after a few unhealthy swigs of small liquor bottles from the mini fridge. The second, third, and fourth calls were to Klaus who didn't pick up, she left him a long rambling message about how all these new events in her life were in fact, his fault and he and Stefan could both just screw themselves because she was going to start over without any of this 007 crap in her life. The kicker was, it wasn't 'in' any of her life. Stefan had a completely separate life that she knew nothing about. He and Klaus were playing guns and shady cars all without her in the mix.

Well, great. Now she had made a fool out of herself. This is what she got for being a self involved, rich bitch.

Caroline opened another bottle of something that she found hard to read at the moment because of blurred vision, it may be because of the tears, or the alcohol, or both. She had the good sense to put on some jeans and grab her purse, before leaving the hotel room.

She managed to check herself out without any majorly concerning looks from the staff of Holiday Inn. They did call her a cab to take her home though, so they must have picked up on how smashed she was, that or the cuts and bruises must of have tipped them off about questionable nature of her stay.

The hotel staff went about their own business, checking in customers and answering phones which seemed to ring constantly. God she hated that sound right now. No one else was sitting in the lobby, which was good because she didn't feel like miss manners much right now, one weird look and she would do a little more than be grumpy. The problem was she was nowhere nearly drunk enough to forget about the last two days events and sitting and waiting for the cab in the sterile lobby was sobering her up, and not in a good way.

Caroline had taken a good look at herself in the mirror before leaving the hotel room, she looked a white trash, two dollar whore who got herself beat up on the job. To that she had taken another swig of mini Jack Daniels and held on to the frustrated tears. She could get through this, she just needed to get home...and break something.

Klaus had reassured her that her 'body' problem had been taken care of and it was best if she didn't ask how. She hadn't said a word, unsure of how to feel about it. Some psycho had broken into her home at the pretext of torturing info out of her about her lying husband. And she stuck him with a knife before she could ask him anything of actual importance. He might of have known something about Stefan that Klaus was leaving out.

Sure enough a head ache was steadily making its way to her head, she closed her moist eyes and rubbed her temples in an attempt to rid of the headache, but it seemed fruitless. She hadn't noticed one of the staff standing at a close distance to her. Alexa or something had booked her a cab.

'Hi Ms... Mr. Klaus left this for you...he thought you might need it.' The very name of Klaus spiked the pain behind her eyes to monumental levels, the hotel concierge unperturbed and obviously involved in a steamy day dream with the object of her current apathy, handed her a dark red fleece coat. It looked warm, new, and pretty expensive.

Bloody Klaus.

* * *

><p>Caroline tried not to snuggle too much inside the red coat, but December this time of the year was easily the iciest and she managed to drink through the alcohol of a whole mini fridge and the even though the cab had heating she still felt cold.<p>

She wanted to get home knowing full well that it was the last place she should be and it would hardly seem more normal, but it was the last place she had known any normality before all of this began, that and she needed to change her clothes, maybe swallow some pain killers and rummage through her husband's belongings at the risk of being a glutton for punishment, to see what other clues she might have missed in the short period of marriage.

The cab driver stopped somewhere, on the opposite street of their building. This, Caroline didn't notice until she got out. She barely got out of the cab, before it sped away into the freezing night. Their building was noticeably quiet looking with one conspicuous police cruiser parked next to it.

Her pulse quickened at the sight. Were they here for the body? Klaus told her that he had it taken care of.

Why would the police be here again? She almost turned around and made a U turn from the sight, but a blonde haired police officer was waving at her from the lobby of their building. It was the trusty officer Brian.

Klaus had been right, to take her to some undisclosed location, she shouldn't have shown up here because by the looks of the officer's concerned expression she was going to have to explain the split lip and purple bruised forehead and lying wasn't really her forte. She smiled disarmingly to divert some attention from her injuring, thinking bitterly about how her husband would be able to ace the lying to the police.

'Hi again, is everything okay Brian?'

The blonde officer smiled back effervescently, he was on alert of something being wrong. 'Are you alright Mrs. Salvatore, you look like you took a bad fall.' Caroline walked ahead of him at the mention of the injuries, she needed to be in her domain, that would calm her racing pulse, but she couldn't because that meant going upstairs to the apartment with an officer of the law in tow. If Klaus's assurance turned out bogus, she would have hell of a lot of diverting to do.

There were a few couches near the lift, she decided to sit down and give her alcohol soaked brain a rest. 'I'm fine. I was out shopping and fell on some stairs in the underground station.' Brian looked at her with visible scepticism even before she could explain herself, she tried to tell herself it was a built in trait of police officers. She laughed a little to cover the guilt. 'I had some heels on, it was pretty stupid, but don't worry, I'm fine. What can I do for you?'

He looked at her split lip almost longer than necessary and nodded before noticing her slightly high black heels, which she had found in a bag of her things that Klaus had thought to bring along for her. 'I just wanted to check up on you and make sure everything's fine. Did your husband come back yet, I just had a few questions for him?'

He looked to the lifts, as if expected to see Stefan come down from there. Caroline swallowed a painful lump. 'Stefan's still at his business trip, when he gets back I'll ask him to call you.'

Brain looked surprised when she told him this. He was clearly expecting her husband to make a run back after what happened, 'Did you tell him about the incident?' She looked caught because she was struggling to answer him immediately. 'The incident', was obviously the home invasion, but her mind kept replaying the attack afterwards. 'I gave him enough details...I'll get him to give you a call, I'm sorry i really need to go now...thank you.'

She knew she was being mysterious, but there wasn't enough of a vision to keep continuing the conversation, her eyes felt blurred with tears and she didn't wait to hear anything else from office Brian and walked into an open lift.

When she got to her front door, she wiped at her eyes again and stood surveying the area, wondering whether she still had her keys, she tried the door handle, but it was definitely locked. Even the contents of her purse seemed foreign to her, when she reached into it, she didn't expect her keys to be inside. They were right on top, as if they were expecting her worry.

'Here goes...' she told herself and slid the key in the lock. About the time she turned the handle and managed to step inside without looking inside. The lift came up to their floor again. 'Mrs. Salvatore, I'm sorry to bother you, but I need to talk to you about something.'

Caroline tripped over her own low heels and fell face first through the front door. It might of have been the after effects of sobering up and wanting to be drunk. Feeling herself being lifted off the ground. 'Are you alright?...' She held off on answering him until she had a good first look of the living room. It was spotless. The disappearance of a dead body energised her more than Brian's words. He helped her sit in one of her dining table chairs; he sat her down on the very chair she was sitting at when Klaus drugged her. She hated that chair.

She sat down on it just the same and took the proffered glass of water from Officers Brian's trusty hands. He looked worried and distinctly uncomfortable. 'I'm okay, really...did you need something?'

'I wanted to ask...' there was a loaded pause as he changed his tone to a little more confidential, like the walls had ears, Caroline felt her throat dry up at the thought. 'No, I wanted to tell you something, something you might find a bit distressing...'

Her being tense was pretty much not a point of contention any more, she took another giant sip of the cool water to calm her nerves down because she was unsure of how much more strange, bad, odd, and disturbing news she could withstand.

'I ran a few checks into your husband's company and even went by to visit the office for some follow up questions I had, but I have to tell you...and this could be way off the mark, but your husband's office was just a receptionist with a fancy table and there was nothing else behind it.' He paused again when he saw her steadily climbing into hypertension. 'It was as if, the place was just a front, the reception couldn't offer me any answers or explanations...I've been an officer for a long time and If there's something I can be sure of, it's my instincts.'

Caroline didn't feel the need to respond to question that wasn't directed at her. He was making a case, and it looked chillingly mysterious no matter how she cut into it. 'The woman was no receptionist...there was something really overqualified about her that just didn't sit right, i looked up other numbers and direct lan line numbers provided in your husband's information. The numbers turned out to be disconnected, and all this was yesterday.'

Her heart sank like a tanker that was capsizing. Disconnected, all his numbers? She hadn't even tried to call him again. 'I don't know what you think I can tell you about any of this, I'm still waiting for him to be back.' This was to the best of her knowledge the truth, even Brian could tell because he nodded back sympathetically as though he was dealing with a case of spousal adultery. 'I thought so, but there's something else, which can be alarming and this is one of reasons I really wanted to speak to him...before his phone lines were disconnected, your home was ransacked, and nothing was recorded lost or taken by you.' Caroline finished the last of the water, intent on getting through this non-interrogation without disintegrating into pieces.

'Your mail man's description turned out to be quite a mystery...' She refocused on him at the mention of the mail man. A loose memory of him slamming the bedroom door on her forehead snapped her out of any fugue state she could have ventured into. 'Did you find out whether he was meant to be here?'

Brian nodded a little bit too enthusiastically; this was an exciting case for him. Random house invasion turned into some mysterious cover up. Even as she thought it, the revelation of this being a distinctive cover up shocked her. Was Stefan also lying dead somewhere as a part of this cover up? Brian didn't seem to notice her ashen face, 'No mail man fitting your description has any deliveries scheduled for yesterday. In fact there were no deliveries in this block of flats listed from any parcel service.' Well. This she already knew, she was just indulging the inner Sherlock Holmes inside Brian. 'This means, whoever you bumped could definitely be the one who ransacked your home, and I really think until I can talk to your husband and straighten some of this out, you should be careful, maybe stay somewhere else for a change, I have a bad feeling whoever was looking for whatever in your home might be back.'

And he's already been back thought Caroline bitterly; the spot he bled to death was spotless. Must of have been some heavy duty carpet cleaner. But hadn't she heard somewhere that stains like blood and wine were unsusceptible to deep cleaning and never really came out completely?

'Caroline?...' Officer Brian had been trying to get her attention for the last three minutes, she needed to stay put together for a few more minutes. She looked at him timidly, hoping none of the I-murdered-a-psychotic-mail-man paleness, direct Brian's inquisitiveness towards her. 'I think you're caught up in something dangerous, or at least your husband is and he's putting you at tremendous risk...if you know something of any importance that can help in solving this, this case which I'm not even sure of what it is...but if you know something that can put you out of danger you need to tell me.'

Beads of sweat had formed involuntarily at the edges of her forehead and she struggled to form words like which could put the police officer at ease. She found she couldn't say anything. He was waiting for a full blown breakdown and she just might give it to him.

Before he could a calming hand on her shoulder to further the breaking of the dam, the phone blared loudly in the background, distracting both of them. Whoever it was had her blessings, because she had just literally been saved by the freaking bell. Officer Brian nodded a bit deflated and handed her the receiver. What if it was Stefan?

The thought travelled a bolt of fear up her spine she hadn't known existed before.

'Hey Care, how is that my only child ignores her lonely, spinster mother for weeks at a time?' Caroline exhaled internally, limiting Brian's view of her almost anxiety attack. She almost wiped the sweat off her brow, 'It's my mom, if you don't mind. I've had a long day...' She trailed efficiently, receiving Brian's apologetic yet slightly disappointed look. He tipped his police hat at her and told her he'll show himself out.

Now the exhalation came in waves, she sat herself on the kitchen island stool, far away from the dining chair and resisted reaching for the bottle of vodka stashed under.

'What's up mom?'

a/n: reviews? Questions and comments? Yes please, will be much much appreciated!


	5. Chapter 5

**Author notes: **Thankyou Jessnicole, and all those who liked the story and are following it. Thankyou all for your interest and enthusiasm, I really appreciate that you took out time to review my story and encouraged me to write more of it. This is definitely more towards klaroline, but since Stefan is well 'missing' and Caroline is still married and pretty loyal, she is going to take some time to warm up to Klaus. Hope you like the coming chapters, they are going to move the story along at a quicker pace and tell us more about Klaus and Stefan's partnership, and the kind work they were involved in.

**Chapter 5**

Despite being minimally intrusive and vaguely nerve wracking, her mom's phone call had amazingly refreshed her to the point where she didn't wish to dissolve away in an alcohol soaked coma... for the next few hours at least. Their conversation was filled with light bits about her mother's dating mishaps, clubbed with shopping sprees. Then came a protracted silence, before a heart clenching admission, 'I miss you kid, when are you two going to visit?'

Caroline heard herself make promises, which were true to only an estimated degree. A really small estimated degree, she wasn't sure what was required of her and what she wanted to do with all the presented facts, or semi presented, mostly hidden facts, which she had been previously oblivious to. The one thing that was blatantly clear though, was that ...Stefan was a liar. He had a separate life from her.

* * *

><p>The door to Stefan's small study was slightly ajar. She kicked it wide open and switched on the lights, it only illuminated the lack of his presence, but she was pretty sure there were clues to who he was somewhere in there. Unless, the mail man got what he came for when ransacked the place before the later attack.<p>

It was that she wanted a written letter appropriating everything Klaus had said to her, but more the need to know something about his different persona away from his life with her.

He had a second laptop apart from the one he used at work. It lay on the dark mahogany desk casually; she doubted there were any secrets lying around in it. There were four different shelves of books and loose sheaf's of paper which looked completely untouched. After the home invasion, she had spent an inordinate amount of time looking through the debris, collating and replacing all the papers and books in their designated places. Stefan liked things in their place; she was by nature messier and unorganized; a trait that has always irritated her husband to no end.

Caroline brushed her fingers over the various volumes of work which were of no interest to her; they were pristine and dust free as if they had been brushed with a feather duster every few days. She shoved the entire line of thick books onto the floor and repeated the same with the other three. There were no pictures in his study, none of her, or of them together. This was his 'me' time space. She pulled out desk drawers and threw all the contents all over the study.

It wasn't the best catharsis, but it was all she was going to get. So, she let it all out. There were empty postcards from places he had traveled, or they had travelled together at some point, but Stefan hadn't spent a millisecond of his time filling those cards up for anyone back home. He didn't have any living parents as far she knew except for a brother she met on her wedding day and never heard from again.

Was there no end to his blatant treachery?

There was an unopened bottle of Jack Daniels behind the desk she had been haranguing for the last few minutes. She took a seat amidst the madness of the study, feeling organised in the completely unorganized setting. The laptop still lay untouched and unobstructed like a standalone vision of loneliness. Caroline flipped it open; just to see what he was covering up his real life with. How many distant lies were stored in this computer as a form of normality?

After a pulse racing, destructive spree she should have felt lighter, but the out of breathlessness just watered into unwanted sobs, which only made her angrier with herself. All her plans, dreams, and hope for a future and a family were shattered in one fell swoop and she wasn't sure whether she had a marriage. By all accounts Stefan Salvatore was an AWOL agent of MI 5, who consequently denied any knowledge of him, except for the great friend, Klaus. It occurred to her that she didn't even know Klaus's last name, or whether her own last name was real.

Caroline twisted the cap off Jack Daniel's feeling the need to be in a haze, she gulped down a mouthful, feeling some of it drip down on the shiny, pristinely precious desk her husband probably planned all his death defying, wife neglecting, missions on. The log in screen stood waiting for a password.

It wasn't his 'work' laptop, why did he need a password? She struggled to pull something workable from her muddled brain. She tried five different combinations of MI5 and 007, they didn't work.

Surprise, surprise; next she tried his date of birth and his last name, their home town, even of his old flames...Vera. The screen turned up with an 'invalid password' entry message again. After a grudging pause she tried her own name, a shortened version he liked to call her when she was in a mood, Care.

The computer screen changed to reveal the laptops desktop contents, its wallpaper a picture of them frozen in happiness on their wedding day. Caroline took another swig of the Jack Daniel's before opening each folder on the desktop.

First one was titled a string of random alphabets and it was on odd collection of pictures, old and new. Nothing caught her eye. No secret 'other' family pictures. There were pictures of company balls which both of them attended together. Klaus was a part of many of those balls. He was in sixty percent of the pictures. She closed the folder, feeling a face grow hot again with anger at the memory of his disarming smile and the drug laced alcohol he fed her after her ordeal.

The next few folders contained nothing of any importance that a casual glance would reveal. No in-your-face incriminating evidence that would tell her what she had been missing about Stefan's closed off nature.

Leaving the laptop open, she left the study to look for the wireless phone. It was still on the kitchen island. She picked it up with the intention of calling Klaus, except she was sure she didn't have number stored anywhere. He'd given her a card with his number at the hotel before leaving her bewildered and intent on a bender, which god help her she might just achieve tonight.

She reached into one of the pockets and found the card lay snugly inside the devil red coat.

Even while she was dialing his number, she could feel her insides squirming. After two rings, an intrepidly amused voice spoke up before Caroline could say anything, 'There are three messages on my phone; two of them were left presumably while you were drunk and one of them long winded, the gist of which basically was telling me to go screw myself...I'm assuming this fourth call now is to tell me that the alcohol has worn off ?'

She ignored the sarcasm because this she had been slightly deserving of hearing, she needed to put a curb on the drinking. Well, after tonight. God, she hated him so much right now that it manifested into physical pain. 'I want to know more...' Now there was silence at the other end, she wasn't sure if he heard her, the excessive drinking in a day had made her throat feel like sandpaper was rubbing on the inside and she wasn't feeling much inclined to repeat herself. 'Excuse me?'

'I said, I want to know more about Stefan.'

It was hard to tell whether his sigh at the other end was deliberately long or just concerned. 'I told you everything you need to know for now Caroline, this is a sensitive right now issue right now...i can't discuss anything with you...'

'What's that supposed to mean? How am I meant to find - ' He cut her off before she could finish, 'You won't find anything, Look, I'm handling it. I need you to steer clear of any dangerous situation.'

Now her veins felt as if they were on fire and it couldn't just be the alcohol. 'I need to know...I - .'

'Caroline, I'll talk to you when I find something, until then I need to be sure you won't go looking for trouble because trust me, you will find trouble if you go poking around this.' There was a note of urgency in his insistence to her; she found it faintly surreal. Klaus and her were never close despite his long term friendship with her husband. He was just someone who made her vaguely uncomfortable with his catlike smiles and flirty undertones.

She hadn't been aware that she had suddenly started pacing back and forth in the small ruined study, in an attempt to calm herself down enough not to throw the phone against the wall in a fit of rage, which ultimately would not serve any positive function for her.

'You expect me to listen to anything you say?! I don't even know you Klaus, is that even your real name?'

'My name has got nothing to do with our discussion, I asked you to leave 'this' to me... please Caroline, i need you to trust me on this. This is not some Nancy Drew mystery you could solve on your on…you need my resources.'

It was hard to tell his sincerity over the phone. She had been trusting of Stefan and his life with her and now she was in a spin drying cycle with no end in sight. Stefan's laptop had started a picture slideshow of all the pictures in the folders. The slideshow kept flashing her with own wide smiles at the company ball. 'Caroline?...for the love of sympathy, tell me you are listening?'

She watched as the pictures displayed a sea of faces she only met once and never saw or heard from again. The gathering seemed normal, but they were from mixed companies and it was hard to tell who was real and who wasn't...apart from Stefan and Klaus.

The joint company ball always came in December. She watched an image of her embracing her husband like they were going to remain happy for the remainder of their lives. Hey, the lighting and balloons made it magical. Klaus was prodding her on the other end of the phone line. She went on internet and tried searching for a date on ball. It was five days later.

A grim satisfaction settled in her stomach and her heart lurched at the thought of whether she was making the right decision. 'Yes, okay Klaus...i get it. Goodbye.' She clicked the off button for the phone and put it down because he was hesitating at the other end, not knowing how to deal with her when she was calm. She smiled inwardly, hysterical, angry women he could subdue easily. Be a little determined and sneaky and he started squirming.

The phone rang again. He must have recovered his lost composure. Caroline took a longer swig of the Jack Daniels and left Stefan's study in tatters, she needed to sleep.

* * *

><p>It seemed like fate was trying to thwart her fact finding mission in every possible way. The trains had been a later wait ...more than usual and she had felt herself followed twice by casually dressed individuals who looked completely uninterested in her except for when they kept close to her. Paranoia was a new kind of headache that was creeping up in her, but it was unavoidable. The mail man had probably known her schedule and followed her around enough to know the sort of things he said to her before he made his moves. The memory of him holding her down by her shoulders painfully brought an unwanted chill up her spine. Caroline hadn't even asked Klaus about what he'd done with the body. Did she want to really know?<p>

Her shoulders ached at the thought, that and the bus jerked to a stop at the Bank station. She got off the bus and started walking towards Stefan's work address. She hadn't really had occasion to visit his office and wanted to see what Brian had been talking to her about a night ago.

The buildings were all a similarly corporate blur, one after the other. It was hard to gauge whether these businesses were all just a front for something more mysterious.

Stefan's building was the last one enclosed in a circle of similarly nameless, dark, tinted giants. She herself was darkly dressed wore a hooded jacket trying to look as inconspicuous as she could manage. Her bruised forehead was hidden from view, the only incriminating evidence that she didn't perhaps belong among the day's corporate traffic was her split lip. No one paid any attention to her when she neared the front doors. They slid open effortlessly, there was no security waiting to ask for her identity and her business.

True to Brian's word, there was a receptionist desk with a severe looking receptionist sitting behind it, looking not much older than her; she was working on her laptop while a phone lay silently at the side. There wasn't much else behind her except for a lift.

Caroline approached the woman with trepidation, not knowing whether to expect a formal greeting or a gun in her face.


End file.
